The Qur'an On Astronomy

Science in the Quran

The Qur'an was revealed in the seventh century. Many
statements pertaining to physical phenomena are dispersed throughout the
Qur'an. These are there in the Qur'an to draw the attention of people to
the wonders of Allah's creation. Any other seventh century book making
statements about the physical universe would surely contain mistakes. Our
knowledge of physical sciences in the twentieth century is far advanced
beyond the imagination of people living in the seventh century. What will
come as a surprise to many people is that of all the numerous statements
about scientific matters found in the Qur'an, not one of those have proved
contrary to the established facts of science. On the other hand, many of
those statements have already been verified by modern scientific studies,
and we confidently expect that as various fields of knowledge advance, other
Quranic statements will likewise prove true.
Let us look at some of the statements which science
has already verified.

How do modern scientists explain the
formation of the universe? Dr. Maurice Bucaille explains it in his book,
The Bible, the Qur'an and Science, as follows: "The basic process
in the formation of the universe . . . Lay in the condensing of material
in the primary nebula followed by its division into fragments that originally
constituted galactic masses. The latter in their turn split up into stars
that provided the subproduct of the process, i.e. the planets" (p. 149).
Does the Qur'an say anything about this condensing and separation of the
primary material to result in the formation of our universe? Let's have
a look. The creator, Allah, says in his final book:

"Do not the unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were
fused together, then we separated them . . ." (Qur'an 21:30).

Dr. Bucaille sees this as "the reference to a separation
process of a primary single mass whose elements were initially fused together"
(p.143). Thus the Qur'an gives an accurate account of the formation of the
universe to call upon humankind to recognize the power of their creator.

This raises an interesting question: How could a man
living in the seventh century invent these ideas which could not be confirmed
until modern times? And how could he in so doing avoid the mythical and
fanciful ideas prevalent in human history? Dr. Bucaille mentions some of
these myths for contrast: "When, as in Japan, the image of the egg plus
an expression of chaos is attached to the above with the idea of a seed
inside an egg (as for all eggs), the imaginative addition makes the concept
lose all semblance of seriousness. In other countries, the idea of a plant
is associated with it; the plant grows and in so doing raises up the sky
and separates the heavens from the earth. Here again, the imaginative quality
of the added detail lends the myth its very distinctive character" (p. 152).

In contrast to those myths, the Qur'anic statements
are "free from any of the whimsical details accompanying such beliefs; on
the contrary, they are distinguished by the sober quality of the words in
which they are made, and their agreement with scientific data" (p. 152).

It must be that the Qur'an is not the product of any
human or humans, but a revelation from Allah. The Qur'an says: "The revelation
of the scripture whereof there is no doubt is from the Lord of the Worlds"
(Qur'an 32:2).

The Sun is a star that is roughly 4.5 billion years
old, according to experts in astrophysics. It is possible to (distinguish
a stage in its evolution, as one can for all the stars. At present, the
Sun is at an early stage, characterized by the transformation of hydrogen
atoms into helium atoms. Theoretically, this present stage should last another
5.5 billion years according to calculations that allow a total of 10 billion
years for the duration of the primary stage in a star of this kind. It has
already been shown, in the case of these other stars, that this stage gives
way to a second period characterized by the completion of the transformation
of hydrogen into helium, with the resulting expansion of its external layers
and the cooling of the Sun. In the final stage, its light is greatly diminished
and density considerably increased; this is to be observed in the type of
star known as a 'white dwarf'.

The above dates are only of interest in as far as
they give a rough estimate of the time factor involved, what is worth remembering
and is really the main point of the above, is the notion of an evolution.
Modern data allow us to predict that, in a few billion years, the conditions
prevailing in the solar system will not be the same as they are today. Like
other stars whose transformations have been recorded until they reached
their final stage, it is possible to predict an end to the Sun. The second
verse quoted above (sura 36, verse 38) referred to the Sun running its course
towards a place of its own. Modern astronomy has been able to locate it
exactly and has even given it a name, the Solar Apex: the solar system is
indeed evolving in space towards a point situated in the Constellation of
Hercules (alpha lyrae) whose exact location is firmly established; it is
moving at a speed already ascertained at something in the region of 12 miles
per second. All these astronomical data deserve to be mentioned in relation
to the two verses from the Qur'an. Since it is possible to state that they
appear to agree perfectly with modern scientific data.

Concerning the creation of the heavens
and the earth, the Qur'an says that prior to the creation, the Heaven was
smoke. God then commanded it and the earth to come into being and they came
willingly (see surah 41:1 1). How does that compare with modern scientific
explanations? Let us hear a scientific explanation and then judge for ourselves.

The French scientist Dr. Maurice Bucaille in his book
called The Bible, the Qur'an and Science explains: "At the earliest time
it can provide us with, modern science has every reason to maintain that
the universe was formed from a gaseous mass principally composed of hydrogen
and a certain amount of helium that was slowly rotating" (p.147). (Big Bang
Theory)

Didn't the Qur'an say that the Heaven was smoke before
its creation? Dr. Bucaille explains the connection between his description
and that of the Qur'an as follows: "Smoke is generally made up of a gaseous
substratum, plus, in more or less stable suspension, fine particles that
may belong to solid and even liquid states of matter at high or low temperature"
(p. 143).

He therefore sees no contradiction of the Quranic
use of the Arabic word dukhan (translated smoke) and a modern interpretation
of that word as a gaseous mass with fine particles when speaking of the
formation of the universe.

We notice here two remarkable features of the Qur'an.
The first feature is that it expresses scientific truths that will be verified
many centuries later. The second feature is that the Qur'an expresses those
truths using terms and expressions that would avoid confusing its first
readers in the seventh century. The seventh century reader of the
Qur'an can easily relate to the image of smoke, and the twentieth century
scientist can easily interpret the word as a gaseous mass.

As we saw in chapter 2, both the Quran
and modern science confirm that the heavens and the earth were created simultaneously,
having been separated from a primary nebula. It is important to understand
that the Bible, the most famous record of the creation prior to the Quran
gives a sequence for the creation of the heavens and the earth that is today
found unacceptable from a scientific standpoint. If the Quran was the work
of human beings it is difficult to imagine how they could have avoided the
human errors so firmly fixed in the minds of people from the previous records.

In the Bible, in Genesis, chapter 1, we read that
God created light which He called day, and separated it from the darkness
which He called night (see v. 3). Today we know that the alternation of
day and night is caused by the earth's movement in relation to the sun.
But, according to Genesis, the sun was not created until the fourth day
(see v. 16). So how could day and night alternate before that?

A related problem is that vegetation is created on
the third day (see vv. 11-12) whereas the sun which is necessary for sustaining
vegetation does not appear until the fourth day.

"What is totally untenable" says Dr. Bucaille, "is
that a highly organized vegetable kingdom with reproduction by seed could
have appeared before the existence of the sun" (The Bible, the Quran and
Science, p. 42).

We have already seen that the Quran states, and modern
science confirms, that the heavens and the earth were formed together. Dr.
Bucaille explains as follows: "Earth and moon emanated, as we know, from
their original star, the sun. To place the creation of the sun and moon
after the creation of the earth is contrary to the most firmly established
ideas on the formation of the elements of the solar system" (p. 42). By
giving a sequence in which the sun and moon are created after the creation
of the earth, the Genesis account proves erroneous. On the other hand, the
Quran, by speaking of the simultaneous creation of the heavens and the earth,
has judiciously avoided the errors of the Genesis account.

Could the Quran have been authored by a human? No!
Dr. Bucaille asks: "How could a man living fourteen hundred years ago have
made corrections to the existing description to such an extent that he eliminated
scientifically inaccurate material and, on his own initiative, made statements
that science has only in the present day been able to verify?" (p.151).
(Dr. Bucaille was not born a muslim, but after reading the Quran and seeing
how the Quran goes in such details into Science he converted to Islam.)

SIX DAYS OF CREATION OR SIX PERIODS?

Today we know that the creation process
can be measured in billions of years.

The priestly editors or the Bible could not have known
this. In their eagerness to enjoin Sabbath observance on others they wrote
that God rested on the very first Sabbath day after finishing up his work
of creating the heavens and the earth.

The six days of creation in the book of Genesis, then,
are clearly like six days of any seven-day week. The Priestly editors have
made it clear that a day is meant a period from one sunset to another. Six
days meant from Sunday to Friday. They believed that the reason the Sabbath
day became holy is that God Himself had rested on that day. Thus the editors
tell us: "By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing;
so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh
day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating
that he had done" (Genesis 2:2).

If that is not far enough, the editors took the idea
that God rested farther still when they wrote as follows: "In six days the
Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed"
(The Holy Bible, King James Version, Exodus 31: 17).

The idea that God rests like humans and gets refreshed
like humans had to be corrected by Jesus, on whom be peace, when, according
to John, he declared that God never stops working, even on the Sabbath day
(see John 5:16). God clarified the matter in His own words when he declared: "And verily we created the heavens and the earth and all that is between
them in six days, and naught of weariness touched us" (Quran 50:38 see also
v. 15).

The above quranic verses clearly refute the idea that
God rested. God, according to the Quran does not get tired. Neither slumber
nor sleep overtakes him (Quran 2:255).

But how about the period of creation? Was that six
days in the Quran too? In the above quotation from the Quran the term translated
'days' could mean, according to Dr. Maurice Bucaille, "not just 'days',
but also 'long periods of time', an indefinite period of time (but always
long)" (The Bible, the Quran and Science, p. 139).

Dr. Bucaille notes that the Quran also speaks of "a
day whereof the measure is a thousand years of your reckoning" (Quran 32:5).
The Quran also speaks of a day whereof the measure is 50,000 years" (Quran
70:4).

Dr. Bucaille also points out that long before our
modern ideas of the length of time involved in the creation, commentators
of the Quran understood that when the Quran speaks of six days of creation,
it does not mean six days like ours, but rather six periods. Abu al Su'ud,
for example, writing in the sixteenth century, understood it as six events
(see The Bible, the Quran and Science, p.l39).

Again, we see that the Quran has avoided repeating
an error which was established in a previous book an error that will not
be discovered until modern times. In view of this, can anyone insist that
the Quran is the work of a man?

The Bible provides a chronology of history
that extends back to the creation of Adam and Eve and to the creation of
the earth. From this chronology it is possible to determine the date of
the creation and hence the age of the earth.

Archbishop Ussher of Armagh (1581-1657) had calculated
the year of creation to be 4004 BC If that was not precise enough, Dr. Lightfoot
of Cambridge worked out that the exact time when God completed His creation
was 9 a.m. on Friday, October 23, 4004 BC (see the book 7whinking about
God by Sr. R. W. Maqsood, p. 63).

Many religious groups and sects have used this date
in predicting precise dates for the end of the world, but all such predictions
have so far proved erroneous. The one fact against them is that the world
is still intact and we are very much alive.One reason al1 of those predictions
failed is that they are calculated from a false date of creation. If 4004
BC was the year of creation, that would make the earth less than six thousand
years old. No scientist can accept this today.

Modern scientists estimate that the earth is 4.5 billion
years old with a maximum error of 2.2 % (see The Bible, the Quran and Science,
p. 148). Knowing this, many educated people lost faith in religion. (Judaism
& Christianity) They naturally felt that the Word of God should not
contain errors of this kind. Others maintain that the Word of God was meant
to teach only that truth which God wanted put into the scriptures for our
salvation It if therefore immaterial if the book contains historical or
scientific errors. As the scientist Galileo put it, the Bible is there to
teach people how to go to heaven; it is not there to teach people how the
heavens go. Some maintain, therefore, that it is understandable that the
book will contain some historical and scientific errors since it was written
by human beings who lived a long time ago and did not share our modern knowledge.
(The Quran completely refutes this idea. The Quran does not contain any
Scientifical mistakes like the Bible does. Did man write the Bible or God.
If not God than why do they say the Holy Bible is the Word of God) The Quran,
on the other hand, does not contain any historical or scientific or any
kind of error. God challenges us to test this claim by examining the book
for ourselves (see Quran 4:82).The
Quran does not repeat the incorrect biblical chronology we have seen above.
The Quran does not give a chronology since its purpose is not to provide
us with the details of history, but only to teach us the lessons arising
from specific events in history.

The Quran does, however tell us that God measured
the sustenance of the earth in four periods (Quran 41 :10). As to what could
be the significance of these four periods, Dr. Bucaille comments as follows:
"One could perhaps see in them the four geological periods described by
modern science, with man's appearance, as we already know, taking place
in the quaternary era. This is purely a hypothesis since nobody has an answer
to this question" (The Bible, the Quran and Science, p. 150).

How did the author of the Quran avoid the mistake
in chronology committed by so many others, and believed in by so many others
even up to our present day? Could a man in the seventh century have known
that the earth was much more than six thousand years old? How could he come
by this modern knowledge unless God was revealing knowledge to him?

God tells us that the Quran is His book and not the
work of any man (see Quran 10:37).

The Quran mentions a rather curious
category of created things, namely things between the heavens and the earth.
Dr. Bucaille observes that this mention in the Quran "may surprise the twentieth
century reader of the Quran" (The Bible, tl1e Quran and Science, p. 144).
For example, one verse says as follows: "To Him (God) belongs what is
in the heavens, on earth, between them and beneath the soil" (Quran 20:6;
other verses include 25:59, 32:4 and 50:38).

What is that between the heavens and the earth? Dr.
Bucaille explains as follows: "The creation outside the heavens and outside
the earth is a priori difficult to imagine. To understand these verses,
reference must be made to the most recent observations on the existence
of cosmic extragalactic material, and one must indeed go back to ideas established
by contemporary science on the formation of the universe . . ." (p. 145).

Scientists tell us that a primary nebula condensed,
then divided up into fragments. These fragments, these galactic masses,
further split up into stars and their sub-products, the planets. Each time
such a division or split occurred, there remained extra material apart from
the principal elements newly formed. The scientific name for these extra
materials is 'interstellar galactic material'.

Is this extra material significant? Yes. Experts in
astrophysics are quite aware of such material which have "a tendency to
interfere with photometric measurements" (The Bible, the Quran and Science,
p. 149). The extra material is so rarefied that they may be referred to
as dusts or smokes or gases. Yet they altogether occupy so much total space
that they may correspond to "a mass possibly greater than the total mass
of the galaxies" (p. 149).

Again, we must face up to the implication of all this.
How could a man living fourteen hundred years ago have known about interstellar
galactic material? Was Muhammad, on whom be peace, well versed in modern
astrophysics? Or is the Quran nothing but the Word of God? Allah, the only
true God, declares in His book: "The revelation of the scripture is from
Allah, the Mighty, the Wise. Surely We [Allah] have revealed the scripture
unto you [Muhammad] with truth; so worship Allah, making religion pure for
Him (only)" (Quran 39:1-2).

This is no less than a reminder
to (all) the worlds. And you shall certainly know the truth of it (all)
after a while. (Qur’aan 38:87-88).

Thus, the Qur’aan is a reminder for all of
mankind until the Last Hour. It contains information that man discovers
in due time. Because this Qur’aan was revealed from Allah’s knowledge
and every single verse in it was revealed with Allah’s knowledge, as He
Himself said:

Professor Armstrong works at NASA, otherwise known as the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration, where he is a well-known scientist there. We met
with him and asked a number of questions about Qur’aanic verses dealing
with the expertise in Astronomy. We asked him about Iron and how it was
formed. He explained how all the elements in the earth
were formed. He stated that the scientists have come only recently to discover
the relevant facts about that formation process. He said that the energy
of the early solar system was not sufficient to produce elemental Iron.

In calculating
the energy required to form one atom of iron, it was found to be about four
times as much as the energy of the entire solar system. In other words,
the entire energy of the earth or the moon or the planet Mars or any other
planet is not sufficient to form one new atom of iron, even the energy of
the entire solar system is not sufficient for that. That is why
Professor Armstrong said that the scientists believe that iron is an extraterrestrial
that was sent to earth and not formed therein.

We read to him the Qur’aanic verse saying: And we sent down Iron,
in which is Great might, as well as many benefits for mankind (Qur’aan 57-25).

Then we asked him about the sky and
whether it had any gaps or rifts in it. He disproved this and replied
that what we are talking about is a branch of Astronomy called the "Integrated
Cosmos" which we scientists have only come to know recently. For example,
if you have a body in outer space which travels a certain distance
in any direction and then travel the same distance in a different direction,
you will find that the mass weight is the same in all directions. Because
this body has its own equilibrium, the pressures from all directions are
the same. Without this equilibrium, the whole universe would collapse. I
recalled Allah’s verse in the

Qur’aan: " Do they not look at the sky above them?
How we have made it and adorned it, and there are no flaws in it?" (Qur’aan
50:6).

Then we talked to Professor Armstrong
about the attempts of scientists to reach the edge of the universe,
and we asked him whether they were successful in this. He replied that they
are fighting an uphill battle to the edge of the universe, we construct
more powerful equipment to observe the universe only to discover that the
new stars we see are still within our galaxy and
that we have not yet reached the edge of the universe. He is aware of the
Qur’aanic verse which says: And we adorned the lowest heaven
with lamps and we made such (lamps) missiles to drive away satans.
(Qur’aan 67:5).

Indeed, all these stars are adornments for the lowest
heaven. He says that scientists have not reached the end of the universe.
Professor Armstrong added that because of this, they are thinking of stationing
more telescopes in outer space so that their observations will not be obstructed
by dust and other atmospheric impediments. Vision telescopes using light
are unable to travel long distances, so we replaced them with radio
operated ones enabling us to see further, but we nevertheless are still
within the boundaries. I mentioned to him this verse: So turn thy vision
again: Do you see any flaw? Again turn your vision a second time: (your)
vision will come back to you dull and discomfited, in a state worn out
(Qur’aan 67:3-4).

Each time Professor Armstrong told us some scientific
fact, we mentioned to him the relevant verse which he agreed with.
Then said to him: ‘You have seen and discovered for yourself the true
nature of modern Astronomy by means of modern equipment, rockets, and space
ships, developed by man. You have also seen how the same facts were mentioned
by the Qur’aan 14 centuries ago, so what is your opinion about these?

He replied: That is a difficult question which I have
been thinking about since our discussions here. I am impressed that
how remarkably some of the ancient writings seem to correspond to
modern and recent Astronomy.

If you open the Quran to the first surah,
you will notice it begins as follows: "In the name of Allah, the Beneficent,
the Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds." Worlds? Not just
one? Yes . . . worlds! There is the physical world, the spiritual world,
the world of bacteria, and so forth. That, obviously, is one sense in which
we can understand 'worlds'.

Another verse of the Quran, however, makes it clear
that there are many earths (see Quran 65:12). Is it possible that there
may be other earths out there?

No one expects to find another earth within our solar
system. But scientists say it is likely that in our galaxy there are many
earths outside the solar system. They say that approximately 50 billion
stars in the Milky Way rotate slowly, as does the sun. This characteristic
indicates that those stars are surrounded by planets that are their satellites.
The Bernard Star, for example, is believed to have at least one planetary
companion. (see The Bible, the Quran and Science, p. 148). Dr. Bucaille
quotes P. Guerin as follows: "All the evidence points to the fact that planetary
systems are scattered in profusion all over the universe. The solar system
and the earth are not unique" (p. 148-9).

In a recent article published in the Toronto Star,
two scientists advanced evidence that there may indeed be many earths waiting
to be discovered. The headline read: "Earths may be dime a dozen out there."

The Quran also uses the symbolic plural number 7 to
indicate the existence of a plurality of heavens (see Quran 2:29, for example).
Dr. Bucaille comments that this is "confirmed by modern science due to the
observations experts in astrophysics have made on galactic systems and their
very large number" (p. 150).

Once again we find that the Quran says something and
scientists later discover it to be true. Can we resist believing in this
book of God? God says: "Those who disbelieve in the Reminder when it
comes unto them (are guilty), for indeed it is an unassailable Scripture.
Falsehood cannot come at it from before it or behind it. (It is) a revelation
from the Wise, the Owner of Praise" (Quran 41 :41-42).

What the Quran mentions about the organization
of the Universe is important because "these references constitute a new
fact of divine Revelation" (The Bible, the Quran and Science, p. 153). The
Quran deals with this matter in depth although this is not dealt with in
the previous scriptures.

Dr. Maurice Bucaille also points out the important
fact that the Quran does not contain "the theories prevalent at the time
of the Revelation that deal with the organization of the celestial world"
(p. 153). If the Quran was authored by any human being, he or she would
have naturally included the ideas prevalent at the time. But many of those
ideas were later shown to be inaccurate. How did the author of the Quran
know enough to exclude those ideas, unless the author is God himself.

Those who say that Muhammad authored the Quran think
that the Arabs were very knowledgeable in the field of Science, and Muhammad
was or course one of them. But this explanation is based on the incorrect
assumption that the Arabs knew Science before the Quran was revealed. As
pointed out by Dr. Bucaille, the fact is that Science in Islamic countries
came after the Quran, not before. "In any case", writes Dr. Bucaille, "the
scientific knowledge of that great period would not have been sufficient
for a human being to write some of the verses to be found in the Quran"
(The Bible, the Quran and Science, p. 1 53-1 54)

Modern astronomers are aware that the stars and planets
are kept within ranges of precise distances from each other. Had it not
been for this fact, collision between them would be inevitable. The author
of the Quran was also aware of this. In the Quran we read "the sun and the
moon (are subjected) to calculations (Quran 55:5).

Again, we read: "For you (God) subjected the sun
and the moon, both diligently pursuing their courses" (Quran 14:33).
The phrase 'diligently pursuing their courses' is a translation of the Arabic
term daa'ib which here means 'to apply oneself to something with care in
a perseverant, invariable manner, in accordance with set habits' (The Bible,
the Quran and Science, p.l55). And that indeed is how the sun and moon behave.

Another verse in the Quran says, "the stars are in
subjection to His command" (Quran 16:12). Order in the universe is essential
for its preservation. God, who subjected them to that order knew about it
before any scientist.

Today scientists speak of gravitational
forces that hold the heavenly bodies apart from each other and prevent them
from colliding with each other. How was this to be conveyed to the first
readers of the Quran? God tells us in the Quran that He is the One Who raised
the sky (Quran 55:7) and that he holds it back from falling on the earth
(Quran 22:65). But how exactly does God do this?

If the author of the Quran was a human being, it would
have been very easy for the author to copy the answer to this question from
the Bible. But today no one will believe that answer.

In the New American Bible, a picture is drawn to show
how the authors of the Bible imagined the world to look like. In that picture,
the sky "resembles an overturned bowl and is supported by columns" (The
New American Bible, St. Joseph's Medium Size Edition, pp. 4-5). The earth
in that picture is flat, and is also supported by pillars. After describing
the picture at length, the editors of that Bible conclude by calling that
idea of the world a "prescientific concept of the universe."

At the time when the Quran was being revealed, anyone
could have easily believed this description which was already found in the
Bible. It is only in modern times that people would know better. How did
the author of the Quran avoid this mistake?

God says in the Quran that He created the heavens "without any pillars that you can see" (Quran 31:10). Again, the
Quran says: "God is the One Who raised the heavens without any pillars
that you can see" (Quran 13:2). Dr. Maurice Bucaille comments: "These
two verses refute the belief that the vault of the heavens was held up by
pillars, the only things preventing the former from crushing the earth"
(The Bible, the Quran and Science, p. 154).

To be able to avoid that prescientific error, the
author of the Quran must have been either a modern scientist, or God Himself.

The sun and the moon are different from
each other not only in terms of size, but also in terms of function. The
sun generates light, but the moon does not. The moon merely reflects the
light coming from the sun. Every high school student today knows this.

A man or woman in the seventh century, however, would
not have known about this fine distinction between the sun and the moon.
To such a person, the two would appear as a greater light and a lesser light.
Such a person would observe that the greater light lights up the day and
the lesser light lights up the night. And this indeed is how the sun and
the moon were described in previous books.

The Bible, describing the creation, says: "God made
two great lights the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light
to govern the night" (Genesis 1: 16). The author of the Qur'an however,
was aware that this comparison between the sun and the moon is not adequate.
Therefore the Qur'an does not refer to them as being a greater and a lesser
light.

The Qur'an says: "God is the One who made the sun
a shine and the moon a light" (Qur'an 10:5).

Commenting on this, Dr. Bucaille says: "Whereas the
Bible calls the sun and moon 'lights', and merely adds to one the adjective
'greater' and to the other 'lesser', the Qur'an ascribes differences other
than that of dimension to each respectively" (The Bible, the Qur'an and
Science, p. 156).

Similarly, the Qur'an says: "Blessed is the One Who
placed the constellations in heaven and placed therein a lamp and a moon
giving light" (Qur'an 25:61).

Here again, the difference between the sun and the
moon is noted. The sun is called a lamp, and the moon is called an object
giving light.

Again in the Qur'an God says that He "made the
moon a light" and "made the sun a lamp" (Qur'an 71:15-16).

Furthermore, God calls the sun a "blazing lamp" (Qur'an 78:12-13). This term which is used for the sun is never used for
the moon in the Qur'an.

In all of these verses, God expresses the notion that
the sun and the moon are "not absolutely identical lights" (The Bible, the
Qur'an and Science, p. 156).

Dr. Bucaille draws his conclusions from what he found
in the Qur'an about the sun and the moon: "What is interesting to note here
is the sober quality of the comparisons, and the absence in the text of
the Qur'an of any elements of comparison that might have prevailed at the
time and which in our day would appear as phantasmagorial" (The Bible, the
Qur'an and Science, p 157). In short, "There is nothing in the text of the
Qur'an that contradicts what we know today about these two celestial bodies."
(The Bible, the Qur'an and Science, p. 157).

Today we know that the Moon revolves
around the earth in approximately 29.5 days. The sun also revolves in its
own orbit. To understand the sun's orbit, Dr. Bucaille says that the position
of the sun in our galaxy must be considered, and we must therefore call
on modern scientific ideas (The Bible, the Qur'an and Science, p. 162).

Our galaxy, the milky way galaxy, includes one hundred
billion stars situated in such a formation that the galaxy is shaped like
a disc. This disc turns around its center like a gramophone record. Now,
it is obvious that when a gramophone record turns, any point on the disc
would move around and come back to its original position. Similarly, every
star in the galaxy moves as the galaxy rotates on its axis. Therefore the
stars that are away from the center of the galaxy orbit around the axis.
The sun is one of those stars.

Dr. Bucaille explains that modern science has worked
out the details of the sun's orbit as follows: "To complete one revolution
on its own axis, the galaxy and the sun take roughly 250 million years.
The sun travels roughly 150 miles per second in the completion of this"
(The Bible, the Qur'an and Science, p. 162).

After describing this, Dr. Bucaille comments: "The
above is the orbital movement of the sun that was already referred to in
the Qur'an fourteen centuries ago." (The Bible, the Qur'an and Science,
p. 162)

And yet this is a new finding. As Dr. Bucaille says,
the knowledge of the sun's orbit is an acquisition of modern astronomy (The
Bible, the Qur'an and Science, p. 162).

Two verses in the Qur'an refer to the orbits of the
sun and moon. After mentioning the sun and the moon, God says: "Each
one is travelling in an orbit with its own motion" (Qur'an 21:33; 36:40). How did the author of the Qur'an know of this? Even after the Qur'an was
revealed, early commentators could not conceive of the orbits of the sun
and moon. The tenth century commentator Tabari could not explain this so
he said, "It is our duty to keep silent when we do not know" (XVII, 15 quoted
in The Bible, the Qur'an and Science, p. 161).

Dr. Bucaille comments: "This shows just how incapable
men were of understanding this concept of the sun's and moon's orbit." (The
Bible, the Qur'an and Science, p. 161).

From this it is clear that if the Qur'an was here
expressing an idea already known to the people, the commentators would have
easily understood it. But this, as Dr. Bucaille explains was "a new concept
that was not to be explained until centuries later" (The Bible, the Qur'an
and Science, p. 161)

This confirms what God said to his prophet, on whom
be peace: "This is of the tidings of the Unseen which we inspire in you
(Muhammad). Neither you nor your people knew it before this" (Qur'an 11:49).

THE SUN & MOON MOVE WITH THEIR
OWN MOTION

The Qur'an makes the following statement
about the sun and the moon: "Each one is travelling in an orbit with
its own motion" (Qur'an 21:33; 36:40).

Why did the Qur'an say that the sun and moon move
with their own motion? And, if that is true, where did the author of the
Qur'an get this information?

The fact is that the sun and moon rotate on their
axes and are in part animated by this rotating motion. The phrase "travelling
with its own motion" in the verses quoted above is a translation of the
Arabic verb 'yasbahoon'. This could also be translated 'they swim.' In that
case, the verse would read that the sun and the moon, "Each swim in
its own orbit." Those who translate the verse this way explain that the
term swim refers to movement with one's own internally generated force.
Furthermore the movement of a swimmer is graceful, measured, and smooth.
This is a very fitting description for the movement of the stars and planets
including the sun and the moon.

After describing the scientific data concerning the
rotation of the sun and the moon, Dr. Bucaille says: "These motions of the
two celestial bodies are confirmed by the data of modern science, and it
is inconceivable that a man living in the seventh century A.D.... could
have imagined them" (The Bible, the Qur'an and Science, p. 163).

It is also amazing that the Qur'an uses a different
term for the movement of the clouds and the mountains (see Qur'an 27:88).
Obviously, the clouds and mountains are driven by external forces. The cloud
is driven by the wind and the mountains move with the rotation of the earth.
The sun and moon, however, move with their own motion, and therefore the
Qur'an uses a peculiar term "they swim" to refer to their smooth, graceful,
self-propelled movement.

How did the author of the Qur'an know enough to make
this choice of words that will reflect a modern scientific truth? The Qur'an
is no less than a revelation from God.

sura 36, verse 40:

"The sun must not catch up the moon, nor does the
night outstrip the day. Each one is travelling in an orbit with its own
motion."

Here an essential fact is clearly stated: the existence
of the Sun's and Moon's orbits, plus a reference is made to the traveling

of these bodies in space with their own motion. A
negative fact also emerges from a reading of these verses: it is shown that
the Sun moves in an orbit, but no indication is given as to what this orbit
might be in relation to the Earth. At the time of the Qur'anic Revelation,
it was thought that the Sun moved while the Earth stood still. This was
the system of

geocentrism that had held away since the time of Ptolemy,
Sec-ond century B.C., and was to continue to do so until Copernicus in the
Sixteenth century A.D. Although people supported this concept at the time
of Muhammad, it does not appear anywhere

in the Qur'an, either here or elsewhere.

1. The Moon's Orbit.

Today, the concept is widely spread that the
Moon is a satellite of the Earth around which it revolves in periods of
twenty-nine days. A correction must however be made to the absolutely circular
form of its orbit, since modern astronomy ascribes a certain eccentricity
to this, so that the distance between the Earth and the Moon (240,000 miles)
is only the average distance.

We have seen above how the Qur'an underlined
the usefulness of observing the Moon's movements in calculating time (sura
10, verse 5, quoted at the beginning of this chapter.) This system has often
been criticized for being archaic, im- practical and unscientific in comparison
to our system based on the Earth's rotation around the Sun, expressed today
in the Julian calendar.

This criticism calls for the following two remarks:

a) Nearly fourteen centuries ago, the Qur'an was directed
at the inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula who were used to the lunar calculation
of time. It was advisable to address them in the only language they could
understand and not to upset the habits they had of locating spatial and
temporal reference-marks which were nevertheless quite efficient. It is
known how well-versed men living in the desert are in the observation of
the sky; they navigated according to the stars and told the time according
to the phases of the Moon. Those were the simplest and most reliable means
available to them.

b) Apart from the specialists in this, most people
are unaware of the perfect correlation between the Julian and the lunar
calendar: 235 lunar months correspond exactly to 19 Julian years of 365.25
days. Then length of our year of 365 days is not perfect because it has
to be rectified every four years (with a leap year): With the lunar calendar,
the same phenomena occur every 19 years (Julian). This is the Metonic cycle,
named after the Greek astronomer Meton, who discovered this exact correlation
between solar and lunar time in the Fifth century B.C.

2. The Sun.

It is more difficult to conceive of the Sun's
orbit because we are so used to seeing our solar system organized around
it. To understand the verse from the Qur'an, the position of the Sun in
our galaxy must be considered. and we must therefore call on modern scientific
ideas. Our galaxy includes a very large number of stars spaced so as to
form a disc that is denser at the centre than at the rim. The Sun occupies
a position in it which is far removed from the centre of the disc. The galaxy
revolves on its own axis which is its centre with the result that the Sun
revolves around the same centre in a circular orbit. Modern astronomy has
worked out the details of this. In 1917, Shapley estimated the distance
between the Sun and the centre of our galaxy at 10 kiloparsecs i.e., in
miles, circa the figure 2 followed by 17 zeros. To complete one revolution
on its own axis, the galaxy and Sun take roughly 250 million years. The
Sun travels at roughly 150 miles per second in the completion of this. The
above is the orbital movement of the Sun that was already referred to by
the Qur'an fourteen centuries ago. The demonstration of the existence and
details of this is one of the achievements of modern astronomy.

--The Moon completes its rotating motion
on its own axis at the same time as it revolves around the Earth, i.e. 29.5
days (approx.), so that it always has the same side facing us. --The Sun
takes roughly 25 days to revolve on its own axis.

There are certain differences in its rotation at its
equator and poles, (we shall not go into them here) but as a whole, the
Sun is animated by a rotating motion. It appears therefore that a
verbal nuance in the Qur'an refers to the Sun and Moon's own motion.
These motions of the two celestial bodies are confirmed by the data
of modern science, and it is inconceivable that a man living in the Seventh
century A.D.--however knowledgeable he might have been in his day (and this
was certainly not true in Muhammad's case)--could have imagined them.
This view is sometimes contested by examples from great thinkers of antiquity
who indisputably predicted certain data that modern science has verified.
They could hardly have relied on scientific deduction however; their method
of procedure was more one of philosophical reasoning. Thus the case of the
Pythagoreans is often advanced. In the Sixth century B.C., they defended
the theory of the rotation of the Earth on its own axis and the movement
of the planets around the Sun. This theory was to be confirmed by modern
sciece. By comparing it with the case of the Pythagoreans,it easy
to put forward the hypothesis of Muhammad as being a brilliant thinker,
who was supposed to have imagined all on his on his own what modern science
was to discover centuries later. In so doing however, people quite simply
forget to mention the other aspect of what these geniuses of philosophical
reasoning produced, i.e. the colossal blunders that litter their work. it
must be remembered for example, that the pythagoreans also defended the
theory whereby the Sun was fixed in space; they made it the centre of the
world and only conceived of a celestial order that was centered on it. It
is quite common in the works of the great philosophers of antiquity
to find a mixture of valid and invalid ideas about the Universe. The brilliance
of these human works comes from the advanced ideas they contain, but they
should not make us over look the mistaken concepts which have also been
left to us. From a strictly scientific point of view, this is what distinguished
them from the Qur'an. In the latter, many subjects are referred to that
have a bearing on modern knowledge without one of them containing a statement
that contradicts what has been established by present-day science.

From this point of view, three verses
of the Qur'an should command our full attention. One expresses, without
any trace of ambiguity, what man should and will achieve in this field.
In the other two, God refers for the sake of the unbelievers in Makka to
the surprise they would have if they were able to raise themselves up to
the Heavens; He alludes to a hypothesis which will not be realized for the
latter.

1)
The first of these verses is sura 55, verse 33: "O assembly of Jinns
and Men, if you can penetrate regions of the heavens and the earth, then
penetrate them! You will not penetrate them save with a Power."

The translation given here needs some explanatory
comment:

a) The word 'if' expresses in English a condition
that is dependent upon a possibility and either an achievable or an unachievable
hypothesis. Arabic is a language which is able to introduce a nuance into
the condition which is much more explicit. There is one word to express
the possibility (ida), another for the achievable hypothesis (in) and a
third for the unachievable hypothesis expressed by the word (lau). The verse
in question has it as an achievable hypothesis expressed by the word (in).
The Qur'an therefore suggests the material possibility of a concrete realization.
This subtle linguistic distinction formally rules out the purely mystic
interpretation that some people have (quite wrongly) put on this verse.

b) God is addressing the spirits (jinn) and human
beings (ins), and not essentially allegorical figures.

c) 'To penetrate' is the translation of the verb nafada
followed by the preposition min. According to Kazimirski's dictionary, the
phrase means 'to pass right through and come out on the other side of a
body' (e.g. an arrow that comes out on the other side).

It therefore suggests a deep penetration and emergence
at the other end into the regions in question.

d) The Power (sultan) these men will have to achieve
this enterprise would seem to come from the All-Mighty. 'There can be no
doubt that this verse indicates the possibility men will one day achieve
what we today call (perhaps rather improperly) 'the conquest of space'.
One must note that the text of the Qur'an predicts not only penetration
through the regions of the Heavens, but also the Earth, i.e. the exploration
of its depths.

2) The other two verses are taken from sura 15, (verses
14 and 15). God is speaking of the unbelievers in Makka, as the context
of this passage in the sura shows: 'Even if We opened unto them a gate to
Heaven and they were to continue ascending therein, they would say: our
sight is confused as in drunkenness. Nay, we are people bewitched." The
above expresses astonishment at a remarkable spectacle, different from anything
man could imagine.

The conditional sentence is introduced here by the
word lau which expresses a hypothesis that could never be realized as far
as it concerned the people mentioned in these verses.

When talking of the conquest of space therefore, we
have two passages in the text of the Qur'an: one of them refers to what
will one day become a reality thanks to the powers of intelligence and ingenuity
God will give to man, and the other describes an event that the unbelievers
in Makka will never witness, hence its character of a condition never to
be realized. The event will however be seen by others, as intimated in the
first verse quoted above. It describes the human reactions to the unexpected
spectacle that travelers in space will see: their confused sight, as in
drunkenness, the feeling of being bewitched... This is exactly how astronauts
have experienced this remarkable adventure since the first human space flight
around the world in 1961. It is known in actual fact how once one is above
the Earth's atmosphere, the Heavens no longer have the azure appearance
we see from Earth, which results from phenomena of absorption of the Sun's
light into the layers of the atmosphere.

The human observer in space above the Earth's atmosphere
sees a black sky and the Earth seems to be surrounded by a halo of bluish
color due to the same phenomena of absorption of light by the Earth's atmosphere.
The Moon has no atmosphere, however, and therefore appears in its true colors
against the black background of the sky. It is a completely new spectacle
therefore that presents itself to men in space, and the photographs of this
spectacle are well known to present-day man. Here again, it is difficult
not to be impressed, when comparing the text of the Qur'an to the data of
modern science, by statements that simply cannot be ascribed to the thought
of a man who lived more than fourteen centuries ago.

At a time when it was held that
the Earth was the centre of the world and that the Sun moved in relation
to it, how could any one have failed to refer to the Sun's movement when
talking of the sequence of night and day? This is not however referred to
in the Qur'an and the subject is dealt with as follows:

sura 7, verse 54: "(God) covers the day with
the night which is in haste to follow it..."

sura 36, verse 37: "And a sign for
them (human beings) is the night. We strip it of the day and
they are in darkness."

sura 31, verse 29: "Hast thou not seen how
God merges the night into the day and merges the day into the night."
sura 39, verse 5: "...He coils the night upon the day and He
coils the day upon the night."

The first verse cited requires no comment. The second
simply provides an image. It is mainly the third and fourth verses
quoted above that provide interesting material on the process of interpenetration
and especially of winding the night upon the day and the day upon the night.
(sura 39, verse 5) 'To coil' or 'to wind' seems, as in the French translation
by R. Blachere, to be the best way of translating the Arabic verb kawwara.
The original meaning of the verb is to 'coil' a turban around the head;
the notion of coiling is preserved in all the other senses of the word.
What actually happens however in space? American astronauts have seen and
photographed what happens from their spaceships, especially at a great distance
from Earth, e.g. from the Moon. They saw how the Sun permanently lights
up (except in the case of an eclipse) the half of the Earth's surface that
is facing it, while the other half of the globe is in darkness. The Earth
turns on its own axis and the lighting remains the same, so that an area
in the form of a half-sphere makes one revolution around the Earth in twenty-four
hours while the other half-sphere, that has remained in darkness, makes
the same revolution in the same time. This perpetual rotation of night and
day is quite clearly described in the Qur'an. It is easy for the human understanding
to grasp this notion nowadays because we have the idea of the Sun's (relative)
immobility and the Earth's rotation. This process of perpetual coiling,
including the interpenetration of one sector by another is expressed in
the Qur'an just as if the concept of the Earth's roundness had already been
conceived at the time-which was obviously not the case. Further to the above
reflections on the sequence of day and night, one must also mention, with
a quotation of some verses from the Qur'an, the idea that there is more
than one Orient and one Occident. This is of purely descriptive interest because these phenomena rely on the most commonplace observations. The idea
is mentioned here with the aim of reproducing as faithfully as possible
all that the Qur'an has to say on this subject.

--In sura 55, verse 17, the expression 'Lord of
the two Orients and the two Occidents'.

--In sura 43, verse 38, a reference to the 'distance
between the two Orients', an image intended to express the immense size
of the distance separating the two points.

Anyone who carefully watches the sunrise and
sunset knows that the Sun rises at different point of the Orient and sets
at different points of the Occident, according to season. Bearings taken
on each of the horizons define the extreme limits that mark the two Orients
and Occidents, and between these there are points marked off throughout
the year. The phenomenon described here is rather commonplace, but what
mainly deserves attention in this chapter are the other topics dealt with,
where the description of astronomical phenomena referred to in the Qur'an
is in keeping with modern data.

The expansion of the Universe is the
most imposing discovery of modern science. Today it is a firmly established
concept and the only debate centres around the way this is taking place.

It was first suggested by the general theory of relativity
and is backed up by physics in the examination of the galactic spectrum;
the regular movement towards the red section of their spectrum may be explained
by the distancing of one galaxy from another. Thus the size of the Universe
is probably constantly increasing and this increase will become bigger the
further away the galaxies are from us. The speeds at which these celestial
bodies are moving may, in the course of this perpetual expansion, go from
fractions of the speed of light to speeds faster than this.

The following verse of the Qur'an (sura 51, verse
47) where God is speaking, may perhaps be compared with modern ideas: "The
heaven, We have built it with power. Verily. We are expanding it."

'Heaven' is the translation of the word sama' and
this is exactly the extra-terrestrial world that is meant.

'We are expanding it' is the translation of the plural
present participle musi'una of the verb ausa'a meaning 'to make wider,

more spacious, to extend, to expand'.

Ramidullah in his translation

of the Qur'an talks of the widening of the heavens
and space, but he includes a question mark. There are those who arm themselves
with authorized scientific opinion in their commentaries and give the meaning
stated here. This is true in the case of the Muntakab, a book of commentaries
edited by the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Cairo. It refers to the
expansion of the Universe in totally unambiguous terms.

Noble Qur'an (3:102)

O ye who believe! Heed Allah as He deserves to be heeded, and die not except in a state of Islam [in submission to Him].

Narrated Abu Huraira: Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) said,

"On the Day of Resurrection Allah will hold the whole earth and fold the heaven with His right hand and say, 'I am the King: where are the kings of the earth?" (Al-Bukhari, Volume 9, Book 93, Number 479)

25 Duas from the Nobal Qur'an

1. Our Lord! Grant us good in this world and good in the life to come and keep us safe from the torment of the Fire. (2:201)

2. Our Lord! Bestow on us endurance and make our foothold sure and give us help against those who reject faith. (2:250)

3. Our Lord! Take us not to task if we forget or fall into error. (2:286)

4. Our Lord! Lay not upon us such a burden as You did lay upon those before us. (2:286)

5. Our Lord! Impose not on us that which we have not the strength to bear, grant us forgiveness and have mercy on us. You are our Protector. Help us against those who deny the truth. (2:286)

6. Our Lord! Let not our hearts deviate from the truth after You have guided us, and bestow upon us mercy from Your grace. Verily You are the Giver of bounties without measure. (3:8)

7. Our Lord! Forgive us our sins and the lack of moderation in our doings, and make firm our steps and succour us against those who deny the truth. (3:147)

8. Our Lord! Whomsoever You shall commit to the Fire, truly You have brought [him] to disgrace, and never will wrongdoers find any helpers. (3:192)

9. Our Lord! Behold we have heard a voice calling us unto faith: "Believe in your Lord" and we have believed. (3:193)

10. Our Lord! Forgive us our sins and efface our bad deeds and take our souls in the company of the righteous. (3:193)

11. Our Lord! And grant us that which you have promised to us by Your messengers and save us from shame on the Day of Judgement. Verily You never fail to fulfill Your promise. (3:194)

12. Our Lord! We have sinned against ourselves, and unless You grant us forgiveness and bestow Your mercy upon us, we shall most certainly be lost! (7:23)

13. Our Lord! Place us not among the people who have been guilty of evildoing. (7:47)

14. Our Lord! Lay open the truth between us and our people, for You are the best of all to lay open the truth. (7:89)

15. Our Lord! Pour out on us patience and constancy, and make us die as those who have surrendered themselves unto You. (7:126)

16. Our Lord! Make us not a trial for the evildoing folk, and save as by Your mercy from people who deny the truth. (10:85-86)

17. Our Lord! You truly know all that we may hide [in our hearts] as well as all that we bring into the open, for nothing whatever, be it on earth or in heaven, remains hidden from Allah (14:38)

18. Our Lord! Bestow on us mercy from Your presence and dispose of our affairs for us in the right way. (18:10)

19. Our Lord! Grant that our spouses and our offspring be a comfort to our eyes, and give us the grace to lead those who are conscious of You. (25:74)

20. Our Lord! You embrace all things within Your Grace and Knowledge, forgive those who repent and follow Your path, and ward off from them the punishment of Hell. (40:7)

21. Our Lord! Make them enter the Garden of Eden which You have promised to them, and to the righteous from among their fathers, their wives and their offspring, for verily You are alone the Almighty and the truly Wise. (40:8)

22. Our Lord! Relieve us of the torment, for we do really believe. (44:12)

23. Our Lord! Forgive us our sins as well as those of our brethren who proceeded us in faith and let not our hearts entertain any unworthy thoughts or feelings against [any of] those who have believed. Our Lord! You are indeed full of kindness and Most Merciful (59:10)

24. Our Lord! In You we have placed our trust, and to You do we turn in repentance, for unto You is the end of all journeys. (60:4)

25. Our Lord! Perfect our light for us and forgive us our sins, for verily You have power over all things. (66:8)